This job listing expired on Dec 10, 2020
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Company Overview:

A leader in creating deep and engaging experiences on PC and mobile, Jagex was founded in 2001 and is today one of the UK’s biggest and most respected video game developers and publishers.

Famed for its flagship MMOs RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, Jagex has welcomed more than 260million player accounts to its world and created a $1bn lifetime franchise revenue. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond running games in live operations; our titles are living games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds.

Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, on PC and mobile, offer ever-evolving, highly-active worlds and our community-focussed development ethos empowers players to have a real say in how each game is shaped.

Jagex is expanding and extending its portfolio with fresh franchise titles, new IP and, in 2018 launched Jagex Partners, delivering third-party publishing and operational services exclusively for the living games of the future.

Jagex employs more than 360 people at its Cambridge headquarters and is on the hunt for talented people to work across the business to help the company to achieve yet another year of record growth and player satisfaction.

Technical Animator Do you love animation with every thread of your body? Do you like to tinker with skeletons, rigs and solve problems? Are you a team player that strives for quality and embraces the challenges of change? Do you enjoy being part of the collaboration behind great game animation?

We have an exciting opportunity for a Technical Animator to join a growing team passionately crafting a new project! As a Technical Animator you will be responsible for developing an effective animation workflow and supporting the team deliver quality animation on style and efficiently.

You will be pivotal in developing and streamlining animation systems, workflows and pipelines. You will collaborate with all disciplines of game development in helping to deliver a dynamic and characterful animation style.

The Technical Animator is an important member of our team, and this role represents a career defining opportunity to share our vision and have a meaningful impact on a game from conception to completion.

A little bit of what we are after: You are a highly skilled individual, balancing visual aesthetic and technical skill, that has shipped several high quality titles. You will have experience of successfully defining and documenting animation and technical workflows for others to follow. You can identify opportunities for tooling or automation of processes to streamline the animation workflow. You are proactive, flexible and an effective communicator, able to collaborate and network with the team to problem-solve and help deliver top quality animation work. Directly Reporting to: Animation Lead

Key Responsibilities

  • Rigging and skinning, Unreal Engine character setup and support
  • Supporting quality standards and ensuring content is meeting technical requirements
  • Collaborate with Art and Programming to ensure animation pipelines and tools are effective, optimal and capable of delivery.
  • Prototyping, problem solving, R&D on animation pipelines, authoring and maintaining scripts, tools or documentation needed for in house / external animation production.
  • Support, promote and build good team and studio morale in an open, creative environment
  • Resolving complex issues and helping the animation team find efficiencies through tools and process.
  • Communicate and feedback to wider Technology team on system needs and improvements.

What we are looking for:

  • Expert working knowledge of Maya for rigging / skinning (functional examples in showreel)
  • Thorough knowledge of end to end character animation workflow / pipelines
  • Working Knowledge of Mel Script, Python (functional tool examples in showreel)
  • Working knowledge of Motion Capture Processes and retargeting of data
  • Familiarity with Unreal, State Machines, Blend spaces, Blueprints and Visual Scripting
  • Effective time management, task prioritisation
  • Ability to communicate clearly, and concisely to team, peers and management
  • Professional attitude, work ethic and self-driven professional development
  • Understanding of anatomy and body mechanics
  • A Passion for game development
  • *BONUS* C++ C# PyQt
  • *BONUS* FACS or similar facial rigging experience